Blog Post

“A poet once said: “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” I’ve found this mantra to hold true on a number of things. At it’s core, this phrase conveys a message that “that which is new is not actually new, but is a re-dressed version of that which we’ve already known.” In our current world of hyper-polarized politics and ideology, I’ve seen this message hit-home more than I’d like.

We are, I believe, seeing the beginnings of a new reformation in the life of the church catholic. In a great many ways, we are seeing people stand up, speak out, and live their faith with fervor we haven’t seen in decades. This is awesome. At the same time, much like the reformers of old, I think there are some things that we must take caution upon. Case in point: recently, I saw an article -from a very beloved and learned colleague- that essentially said “we have passed the time for civility; if fighting for justice, acceptance, and welcome makes us un-civil, well, so be it!” To be clear, I don’t think my colleague meant any harm with this post and I don’t think they were trying to do anything different than Martin Luther’s “Here I stand, I can do no other” act. At the same time, this kind of mindset and it’s increasing popularity in mainline and progressive Christianity have me worried.

You see, I grew up in the Evangelical Fundamentalist world of faith and politics. (The world I was nurtured in thought Southern Baptists were liberal, if that tells you anything…) I and a great number of friends and family are very much to blame for the utter political chaos we see within the current world. Oh sure, a number of us have left this ultra-conservative realm, but we more than happily laid the groundwork for a situation such as the one we now see. Due to this, I have -as ultra-right political fortunes have increased- found myself in a world of contrition and penance. As a part of my penance, I’ve vowed to work to confront absolutism when I encounter it. Thus it is that I have a problem with the ethos promoted in my colleague’s article and with a lot of what we are seeing on the political and religious left. More and more, I am seeing sound-bites, interviews, and protests that greatly resemble the things I heard a generation ago in the Evangelical Fundamentalist world. While I was in that world, common phrases were: “if standing for God makes us out of touch with the world, so be it! We will stand up for God, no matter what. If we die standing for our faith, what greater thing could there be?” Sound familiar? Truth be told, we were less standing up for God and more standing up for an ideology. We were committed to one view, one ideal, and one understanding in ways that were almost impossible to destroy. Again, this is what worries me so much about some of the nascent ideology I see popping up by those who are opposing the unjust actions of the political entities of the world. We are dangerously close to not standing for justice as we are for our own ideology. We are, in our own ways, very close to taking the actions and understandings that propelled Evangelical-conservatism to its current position of power and simply re-spinning them with our own understandings.

Don’t get me wrong, in a great number of ways I think this is a time where faith must be conjoined with action. I passionately believe that this is one of -if not the most- critical times in history for the church to preach and teach a God of extravagant welcome, grace, and love. I think, as pastors, we have both a moral AND spiritual obligation to preach the inclusive Jesus of Nazareth and all that he taught. Again, however, I think we’re on a razor-thin edge of going too far.

If I am a minister who will demonstrate for, preach about, and believe in a God of unlimited grace, I can’t be a person who says “I’ll have nothing to do with your hateful ilk,” because grace calls me to say “I can never condone your actions and outlook, but I believe God loves you, forgives you, and saves you just the same as me.” If I am a minister who will say that “No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you’re welcome here and with God,” I darn well better be open to ALL including folks I utterly disagree with. If I am a pastor who says “God is love,” there is no way in Hades that I cannot turn around and not offer to all of creation the same love that I continually see Almighty God providing to me. There is utterly no way that I can engage in exclusionary politics, make fun of those who (even though I strongly disagree with them) are in power, or suggest that -by their misguided actions alone- they are any less human than I am, without telling the world “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

We are not called to be the “new boss,” the “old boss,” or anything in between. We are instead called to be a new, different, reinvented and rehabilitated people of faith.